


Wanna Bang? (AKA Bang-A-Rang, An Ode to Dante Basco)

by the_savage_daughter_0627



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Bad Jokes, Badass Toph Beifong, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Implied Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender, Minor Sokka/Suki, Modern Era, Oblivious Aang (Avatar), One Shot, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Short One Shot, Sorry Not Sorry, Toph Being Awesome, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26281144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_savage_daughter_0627/pseuds/the_savage_daughter_0627
Summary: In which Zuko lands himself in hot water with Katara's older brother after a snack trip gone awry.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 135





	Wanna Bang? (AKA Bang-A-Rang, An Ode to Dante Basco)

**Author's Note:**

> This has been floating around in my head for a little while so I finally wrote it.
> 
> It's short, sweet, and kind of stupid, but I also really love it.
> 
> Special thanks to my beta, LadyFaePhillips/FireLadyFae, for her work on this piece! As always, everything she touches is always infinity better when she's done <3

The all-night study session convened in the cozy two-bedroom apartment Sokka and Zuko shared. It wasn’t uncommon for their friend group to come over to work on their homework, since Aang and Toph both lived in the dorms on campus and the apartment Suki and Katara shared was smaller and considerably more cramped.. 

That made Zuko and Sokka’s apartment their go-to hangout even outside of homework. The boys had pooled their resources from the tips they made working at the Jasmine Dragon to buy a PlayStation 4, and told everyone they were welcome to come and play. And if they wanted to buy their own games to play on it, they were more than welcome to. 

Well, everyone except Toph—being without sight, she had instead convinced Zuko to buy  _ The Last of Us 2  _ so she could listen to him play it.

“I get tired of listening to play-throughs of it on YouTube,” Toph had explained derisively when she had presented the game to him. “And Sokka sucks at stealth games, and I don’t wanna just listen to him getting eaten by zombies all the time.” This made Zuko crack up at Sokka’s expense as Sokka tried to refute the fact, only to give up and fume in the corner.

It resulted in their Saturday nights being occupied for the three weeks it took Zuko to beat the game. The two of them would sit on the couch with the volume up so Toph could hear every gritting sound: the cock of the guns, the ticking sounds of the clickers, those weird and unnerving zombies that Zuko  _ hated _ dealing with (much to Toph’s delight, as she got to listen to him swear and drop the controller when one managed to sneak up on him), and of course, the music score, which Toph proclaimed to be the absolute  _ best.  _

But when video games had to be set aside for homework, the friends still settled on the well-worn sofa and loveseat or sprawled across the floor. They took turns picking music to listen to on Suki’s Bluetooth speaker, and alternated who was in charge of the snacks and the drinks.

And that’s where they were on this particular Friday night, with finals week coming up fast, as they all crowded into the apartment to cram in any last-minute knowledge they may have neglected to memorize during the semester. 

Sokka was in charge of the music and it was Zuko’s turn to relegate the snacks and beverages. He had run down to the local convenience store with a list of things to get, and he had been gone for twenty minutes now—too long for what should have been a short trip.

“Where’s Sparky? He told me he’d read my chapters to me.” Toph huffed out an irritated breath. She had her headphones on to listen to the audiobook she was working on for her English course. “If I have to listen to this old geezer snore his way through another chapter of  _ King Lear _ without any snacks, my ears are going to start bleeding,  _ and  _ I’ll be crabby.”

“I don’t know. It can’t take  _ that  _ long to do a snack run,” Sokka replied with a disgruntled frown Toph couldn’t see. “He better hurry up though. I’m  _ starving _ .”

Katara rolled her eyes. “You’re  _ always _ starving, Sokka.”

“I’m a growing boy!”

“You’re a grown man who still  _ acts _ like a boy,” Katara shot with a teasing smile. “There’s a difference.”

Sokka sniffed dramatically as he placed his hand over his heart in mock-hurt. “That’s cruel, little sister.”

“It’s true,” Toph snorted. She took her headphones off and leaned back on the couch cushion, propping her bare feet up on the coffee table next to Aang’s open anthropology textbook. “Since Sparky is taking forever, I’m taking a break.”

“I could read it to you, Toph,” Aang volunteered as he looked up from his textbook. “Shakespeare is better than anthropology.”

Toph waved him off. “Nah. Your squeaky little voice doesn’t have the same effect on it as Sparky's voice does.”

Aang’s brow furrowed as he narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance before he looked back at his textbook. Toph could be so mean sometimes!

Katara reached over and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t listen to Toph. She’s just hangry.”

“You’re darn right I’m hangry! I  _ need _ my Twizzlers and Mountain Dew. Where. Is. Sparky?”

“You know, texting  _ is  _ a thing,” Suki pointed out from where she sat on the floor resting her back against Sokka’s legs. 

Toph waved her hand in front of her unseeing eyes. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

“Don’t act like you don’t have that fancy talk to text thing,” Sokka pointed out. “You text all of us on it all the time.”

“ _ I’ll  _ text him then,” Katara interjected with another roll of her eyes. Sometimes dealing with her friends was like wrangling children. 

She pulled out her phone and was about to text him when the front door opened and the man in question entered the apartment, his hands loaded down with black grocery bags filled with their drinks and snacks.

“ _ Finally _ ,” Sokka moaned, throwing his hands up. “I was seriously about to starve to death.”

Toph grinned wickedly. “Get over here and read Shakespeare to me, Sparky.”

Zuko looked at Katara, the corner of his lips tugging up. Then he headed into the small kitchen. Katara got to her feet and followed him. He set the bags down on the counter.

Katara started to help by rifling through a bag. She set the items on the counter: Toph’s Twizzlers, Sokka’s Twinkies and seal jerky, Suki’s rice crisps, Aang’s organic chocolate-covered açaí blueberries, Zuko’s Hot Cheetos, and her own bag of salted pretzels. Beside her, Zuko began pulling out the drinks: Toph’s Mountain Dew, Sokka’s blue Powerade, Suki’s sparkling water, and Aang’s kombucha. 

“They didn’t have the energy drink you wanted. Sorry,” Zuko said. He produced a black can in the palm of his hand, but she wasn’t paying any attention to him.

“Ugh, I’m  _ so _ over trig, Katara groaned. “I would rather do  _ anything  _ else.”

“Wanna Bang?” Zuko’s voice carried from the kitchen out to where their friends were gathered in the living room. His eyes grew wide as he stared frantically at Katara. No one else could see the can in his hand.

Sokka’s indignant shriek filled the apartment. “ _ What  _ did you just say to my sister?” He popped up over the breakfast counter that divided the kitchen and living room, his eyes narrowed accusingly.

Katara covered her snort with her hand as Zuko innocently held up the energy drink, his cheeks reddening.

Realization dawned on Sokka’s face and it was his turn to look embarrassed.

“Dude,” Zuko said. “It’s just an energy drink.”

Toph’s cackles filled the apartment while Suki and Aang snorted out a laugh. Katara and Zuko exchanged an embarrassed look.

They were never going to hear the end of this. 


End file.
